[Billy Bob]

I’m a long time owner of bassets, but I have never trained one. I do have a bloodhound that was trained to track deer (he’s much better at the idea than I am) so I’m not completely stupid to this whole tracking idea. My wife and I got us a little girl basset just the other day. I’m really thinking about training her to track. I’m not into any of the shows or stuff…I’m really a country boy who honestly feels that if I’m going to train her to track then I need to train her to track something that I need her to find, not just a glove or whatever.

So anyway, I’m a big time beekeeper, and one of the hard things in beekeeping is to find feral (wild) colonies in the woods. So I was thinking could it be possible to train my little girl to track or find wild colonies of honey bees?

Now if it is possible the next question is what or how would I teach her to do this? Would I train her to track the bees themselves or wax or honey or pollen…I guess you can see where I’m going with this.

If any of this happens and I train her to find wild colonies I think it would be a first, and I know the beekeeping community would be somewhat thankful.

If it makes any of you feel better, I’m a moderator on a beekeeping forum…so I know how you feel when people come in and ask crazy questions. But I thank you for your time and any help you can offer.

BB

 

[pinehawk]

this would "BEE" a new one to see.why not dogs are trained to sniff for drugs,bombs,game,people( alive & dead ).so why not wild bees? i know that bee wax is very fragrant,so maybe try her out with that.scenting bees? is there a scent that is heavy/smell that is near the hives that you can smell up close as to not smell from a few feet or some distance away? how about Queen Bee pheromones? if she could smell the queen she will as you know find the hive.i see you are from down in DIXIE,has the dreaded africanized killer bee been seen in your lo-cal and would it SMELL different or the same to her,that could be a problem to think about if they have a foothold in your area.let us know how you make out,also make sure she doesn't have reactions to bee stings,but i know you thought of that already.

 

[biscuit]

What a great idea!

This year, I've been overrun by honeybees and the big fat bumblebees. It's been a lot of fun --- every time I go outside, one of those huge bumblebees comes trundling around trying desperately to stay aloft.

I also have bears in my hollow (little black ones [which explains why I kept seeing what I thought was the world's fattest groundhogs :roll: ] ) and I'm guessing they've moved in at least in part ... because there's so many bees, meaning lots of honey.

If you really manage to do this, you MUST keep us posted on how it's going. What a great idea! But teach that girl to beware the Africanized --- I'm assuming you know about them --- they've apparently finally arrived in the southern part of our state here.

 

[Soundtrack]

I don't see why not.

Here's a news clip from my latese issue of Dogs in Canada....

A college biology project and a bug-sniffing Bloodhound may be the keys to saving tracts of forest in the American Midwest.
Dawn Bale, a 38-year-old independent-studies junior taking biology and geology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, tested her dog's ability to detect a newly discovered beetle called an Emarald Ash Borer in apparently healthy trees, as an experiment for class. She found that "Eddie" (short for Sir James Edgar Bond) picked up the bugs' scent a respectable 80 per cent of the time.
The "A" that Bale got for her paper was just the beginning. Since 2002, the beetles have been the scourge of forests in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, and forestry officials are interested in using Edie to help head off infestations before they force the destruction of large stands of trees.
But Bale is taking her time introucing Eddie to working life. She says her bug sniffer isn't ready for a career in forestry just yet, but could be ready for next year's preventive efforts.

 

[Dean]

I think I would try taking a rag, rubbing some honey into it, then hiding it. Let the dog find it, lots of praise and a treat.. Keep repeating while you hide the rag in harder to find places